In a series ofinternational press events last week, Nintendo filled in a lot of the gaps in the public's knowledge of the upcoming Wii U, including launch date and pricing information. But among all the announcements, there was one major omission: how will the system handle online multiplayer games?

It has been more than a year since the Wii U was first unveiled, and Nintendo has devoted precious little of that time to detailing how the Nintendo Network (the company's umbrella brand for online services on the Wii U and 3DS) will let Wii U users connect and play with each other online. Given the company's history with the much-reviled friend code system, gamers are rightly curious to see how Nintendo will be upgrading the online experience this time around.

My assumption up to this point has been that third-party developers and other insiders have been up to speed on the workings of the Nintendo Network for a while now. I believed that Nintendo was simply waiting until closer to the Wii U's actual release to unveil that functionality more fully (and get another easy hit of press attention). But in a recent roundtable discussion reported by Destructoid, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Director Katsuhiro Harada said that he's just as much in the dark as the rest of us. Answering a question about the game's online infrastructure on the Wii U, Harada said, "Not quite sure at this point. I don't fully understand it. We’re still working with Nintendo to find out about their network."

This is, frankly, a stunning revelation considering the Wii U is now less than two months away from its November 18 release date in the US (and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is one of the games confirmed for launch day). Harada went on to say the netcode in the Wii U version of the game will be "as solid as those of competing systems," according to Destructoid, but I'm not sure how he can say that, given that he still doesn't "fully understand" how Nintendo's network works.

It's one thing to strategically hold back information from the public as you approach a big product launch. But if a major third-party developer is just as confused about how your system's online features work at this point, that suggests you're holding the details back because it's just not ready for prime time yet, even at this late date.

What we do know

We actually know a good deal about how the Wii U will use its WiFi connection for non-gaming features. Nintendo has been frequently talking up Miiverse, its Mii-powered social network that will let users send text, video, and picture messages; have live videochats with friends; leave tips for other players on popular games; and eventually connect through Web-enabled smartphones. Nintendo is expanding the Wii U's eShop by offering many retail games as downloads on release day. And last week we heard about Nintendo TVii, which will integrate the Wii U with a variety of online video streaming services.

But when it comes to actual online gameplay—as well as details like setting up accounts and friends lists, matchmaking, leaderboards and achievements—Nintendo has been much more vague. What statements the company has made about the Nintendo Network on the Wii U have hinted at a somewhat hands-off approach; letting various publishers use the system's WiFi connection as they please. Here's Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime talking to GameTrailers at E3 this year:

We think it's more impressive to have our publishing partners talk about the system and talk about the online capabilities... Our approach will be a flexible model, literally taking the best of what each of our third-party partners has to offer, marrying that with the best of what Nintendo does and bringing that, versus a more rigid, more closed type of environment.

So instead of a situation where a publisher has their own network and wants that to be the predominant platform, and having arguments with platform holders, we're going to welcome that. We're going to welcome that from the best and the brightest of the third-party publishers.

The implication of quotes like these, as I see it, is that each publisher will be responsible for maintaining its own online systems that are layered on top of the Nintendo Network. At this point it's hard to say just how tightly those publisher-based servers will be integrated with the Nintendo's still-nebulous service, or whether Nintendo's servers will be involved in online gameplay at all. Will these third-party games have access to a unified, system-wide friends list? Will I need to go through a separate, publisher-specific account to log in to certain games? We just don't know. If Harada's quote is any indication, neither do some major third-party publishers.

There are some signs that the Nintendo Network won't be as fully integrated into the Wii U ecosystem as competing services from Microsoft and Sony. Fils-Aime has said there will be some sort of system-wide, achievement-style system built into the console, for instance, but that third-party publishers will not be required to feature it in their games (which might blunt the overall impact). And precisely how that achievement system works is just one of many functional questions still remaining about the Nintendo Network.

How do I connect with friends on the system? (In a Kotaku E3 interview, Fils-Aime cryptically said the Wii U will have friends codes, but that the "simplified" setup is "not the existing friend code system"). Can I do a cross-game "Party" chat with my Wii U friends like I can on the Xbox 360? Will I be able to interrupt a friend's Netflix movie with an invitation to a Wii U game? Your guess is as good as ours.

In a recent interview with IGN, Fils-Aime explained why the company has been light on specifics of how the Wii U's online gameplay works.

From our perspective, we don't see online as a huge differentiator. It's like the air we breathe these days as gamers. So, for us, we're going to give you tons of that air, don't worry about it.

Fils-Aime is right that these kinds of features are expected these days, but I'm afraid Nintendo doesn't get the benefit of the doubt here. After experiencing the completely bare bones online gameplay offerings on the Wii, it's hard to just take it on faith that Nintendo has finally learned how to create a fully integrated, easy-to-use online gameplay network that will work seamlessly on its new system. That's not to say that they haven't done that, but without some sort of direct demonstration, or at least a more detailed explanation of how it will work, it's not fair to ask us to assume things are humming along just fine behind the scenes (and, again, Harada's quote gives some reason to doubt that in the first place).

"We have spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money to get our connected experiences right," Fils-Aime told Kotaku recently. "And so when we highlight how the eShop will work, how the Nintendo Network is going to work, I think people are going to be very pleased."

54 Reader Comments

It would be nice if it were like Facebook friends; you search and request friend status, maybe do a secret handshake to verify said person is legitimate, accept them as friends, and then you just get notifications when they are online or want to play a game with you.

It sounds like they might be taking a PC-like approach, where they don't offer any infrastructure for hosting online gaming, but welcome the developers to use their own.

That might work for cross-platform games, but I don't see how that's expected to work well with Wii U - exclusives.

They could also provide an API of sorts for Nintendo-based leaderboards, friend-matching, etc. that 3rd parties can tap into to integrate into their online experience, but that doesn't solve the first issue.

It's sounding more and more like online play will be "left to the developers" which is recipe for disaster.

Harada went on to say the netcode in the Wii U version of the game will be "as solid as those of competing systems," according to Destructoid, but I'm not sure how he can say that, given that he still doesn't "fully understand" how Nintendo's network works.

How the WiiU handles friends, matchmaking, digital purchase ownership, etc. has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of netcode. The only thing that could result in a different experience is the quality of the network stack provided, but that seems unlikely to be a significant factor.

Login, accomplishments, leaderboards, etc, are all handled by GameCenter, but the actual infrastructure is straight up third party servers and networking software?

Probably, but correct me if I'm wrong, the majority of online games on mobile platforms are either slow-paced turn-based, affairs that use push notifications for synchronization.

Granted there are some that involve real-time multiplayer play, but those are from publishers like EA, who have a background in that sort of thing on multiple platforms. That's why I mentioned it might work for multi-platform titles from major developers, but might be rough for someone like Sega, who hasn't exactly specialized in running their own online gaming platform.

Nintendo may just be hoping for someone to step forward with a dedicated backend for online gaming for Wii U, and other developers will jump on board, using that as the de facto standard.

Either way, I think they're making a mistake, unless they already have something like this under negotiation but can't/won't announce it yet for contractual reasons.

Multiplayer games have a VERY long shelf-life. Nintendo doesn't want people playing "Call of Duty 5" for 18 months. They want them buying the latest "Mario Kart" and "Zelda" remakes, finishing them in a couple of weeks or so, and buying more games.

Multiplayer games have a VERY long shelf-life. Nintendo doesn't want people playing "Call of Duty 5" for 18 months. They want them buying the latest "Mario Kart" and "Zelda" remakes, finishing them in a couple of weeks or so, and buying more games.

That's ridiculous. They only make one of those per system. They are just lazy and have a misguided opinion on what's important (HD, Online).

Multiplayer games have a VERY long shelf-life. Nintendo doesn't want people playing "Call of Duty 5" for 18 months. They want them buying the latest "Mario Kart" and "Zelda" remakes, finishing them in a couple of weeks or so, and buying more games.

Is that why there are 6 Call of Duty games (all with multiplayer) on the Xbox 360 and 2 Zelda games for the Wii?

Multiplayer games have a VERY long shelf-life. Nintendo doesn't want people playing "Call of Duty 5" for 18 months. They want them buying the latest "Mario Kart" and "Zelda" remakes, finishing them in a couple of weeks or so, and buying more games.

Simpler and even less we can do about it. The whole friend codes thing is part of a moralistic 'for the children' push from high up in nintendo. I forgot who it was that specifically stated that's why and he won't budge on it.

As far as teh game creators know, the WII U operating system is handling/managing friends. So I'm sure they just have API to interact with to get a list of friends. This would give them solid net-code, and they have no idea how the system will impliment managing friends, since the WII U OS handles that for them.

I am hoping (i am a hopeless optimist) that the OS will manage this under the covers so that to any game that has multiplayer it would be invisible where the player is coming from (local or online). I am hoping that this is why Reggie is smiling!

If i can't play NSMBU with friends who are a little to far away geographically to just drop in, then i will not be a happy customer, just saying.

Multiplayer games have a VERY long shelf-life. Nintendo doesn't want people playing "Call of Duty 5" for 18 months. They want them buying the latest "Mario Kart" and "Zelda" remakes, finishing them in a couple of weeks or so, and buying more games.

on a not-so-snarky remark, I really don't see the appeal on internet multuplayer on nintendo consoles, all the examples listed above are just to have fun on the same room, which is what I like about Nintendo,

Multiplayer games have a VERY long shelf-life. Nintendo doesn't want people playing "Call of Duty 5" for 18 months. They want them buying the latest "Mario Kart" and "Zelda" remakes, finishing them in a couple of weeks or so, and buying more games.

on a not-so-snarky remark, I really don't see the appeal on internet multuplayer on nintendo consoles, all the examples listed above are just to have fun on the same room, which is what I like about Nintendo,

for everything else,I just have my PC

Monster Hunter Tri. There. That's the only time the friend code thing constantly bothered me anyways. Nintendo makes it hard to interact because they want to protect the children from evil adults. Which is funny because on Xbox I think it's the adults that need protection from the children.

My guess is that this decision was taken in Japan and NOA has no way of changing it, even though they know its a bad one.

EDIT:

I'm thinking that Nintendo doesn't care too much about online play because their approach is more casual. It's way more fun playing Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Party with your friends with you, rather than each on their home with their Wii and each with a separate copy.

I know it sounds a little backwards. Nevertheless, they should fix it for their handhelds and for people that like things the way of PS3/X360.

I tried to be excited for Wii U, since I've owned every Nintendo console--but I just can't. The launch lineup of games is just, meh, to me. It's a bunch of stuff already on the PS3/XBox that is a year old (or more). But, it's this lack of information on the system that really has me nervous. I think I'll wait a few months and then decide, rather than drop $500 or so to be a beta tester.

And to the guy who said Mario Kart is only fun for 2 weeks; I'll disagree. When I asked my kids if they wanted a Wii U, their only question was if it will play Mario Kart (our launch version Wii died last month). Last time I looked at their playtime stats, Mario Kart was pushing 200 hours, followed by Super Smash Brothers at about 180. And I have to admit I like that most of those hours involved 2-4 people interacting with each other in the same room, rather than sitting in the basement with a headset on--personal bias.

Why don't we know? Perhaps because, like the Wii, there basically won't be any?

I thought I remember hearing it was confirmed that friend codes in some form still existed on the Wii U. I bet they don't have it down yet, but that won't be an issue because it will be bare minimum anyways.

It would be nice if it were like Facebook friends; you search and request friend status, maybe do a secret handshake to verify said person is legitimate, accept them as friends, and then you just get notifications when they are online or want to play a game with you.

X friends have Y game and Z of them are online right now.

It should just be Facebook. Like Zuckerberg has a better idea to keep gaming going, right?

But then, Facebook would need to add features for managing children accounts, which I can't see happening in two months.

Nintendo touted a huge online store (even giving a 10% buying bonus doe on-line purchases to premium WiiU buyers), major media stuff, and then stuck us with a max of 32GB of internal storage. Want more, well you can D/L your games to SD cards - just have fun actually trying tp play them on those painfully slow devices. Oh wait - you can add a drive via USB - what revision of USB? Who knows? But you're damn sure not getting ESATA!

Now we get the on-line news which amounts to - I dunno. I don't think I've seen a more ambiguous release for console hardware. Usually companies are touting specs and features well prior to release. How about we get some real news Nintendo! You want people to buy in to new kit, but you're not giving anyone a reason to do so. Why spend $350 on a WiiU rather than $350 on games for my PC and current consoles this holiday season?

What we know. It has a tablet in the main controller, it is slightly more powerful than the 360, it will have two rather lame releases from Nintendo upon shipping, might have some third party support between November and March of next year in the form of stuff already on the market (in some cases for over a year). We know about WiFi uses that don't involve gaming! Actual specs are undisclosed (some form of IBM PowerPC and maybe AMD R700). Nintendo on-line ecosystem is undisclosed (especially as far as multiplayer goes). Should cost between $300 - $350 depending upon which setup you buy.

Come on Nintendo, give me something that screams - you must buy this. I'm already really disdainful about the WiiU since it will be sans HDD. So, what does the WiiU have that makes it a must buy? Give us some bones before release at least. Otherwise I may just wait till I can buy a cheap unit a decade down the line for $99.

I tried to be excited for Wii U, since I've owned every Nintendo console--but I just can't.

Hey! Finally something we can agree on!

There's nothing compelling enough for me to get a Wii U, yet, and I still have a list of games on Wii I need to finish before I'd even look into any Wii U games (Skyward Sword, Okami, Metroid Prime Trilogy, yadda yadda...) Don't even get me started on all the Steam games I have from indie bundles...

I might be interested in Wii U in a year or two when it's more mature, there are more compelling uses of the touchscreen, and (hopefully) when the homebrew environment is in place.

I was really hoping to have GameCube support for the handful of games I still want access to on Wii U, but it doesn't appear that's an option. I'm either stuck with keeping the old Wii around (in addition to a Wii U if/when I get one) or hoping GC emulation is good enough on Wii U to justify playing my GC games virtually on Wii U.

While I agree that Nintendo seems to be half-assing the network side of the equation, I have lost all interest in multi-player without a social context (Family friends, etc.) because I know these people and get to enjoy the game rather than having my ass handed to me by some 14 year that spends more time playing than sleeping.

The implication of quotes like these, as I see it, is that each publisher will be responsible for maintaining its own online systems that are layered on top of the Nintendo Network. At this point it's hard to say just how tightly those publisher-based servers will be integrated with the Nintendo's still-nebulous service, or whether Nintendo's servers will be involved in online gameplay at all.

I have a feeling that it'll be like the clusterfuck layered DRM system (because let's face it; DRM is a big reason that publishers push online features) that is Games for Windows Live layered on top of Steam, i.e. the game will log into a 3rd-party publisher server (thus authenticating the game) and then the user/WiiU system will log into Nintendo's servers to authenticate the user/WiiU system. The latter would allow stat-tracking across games using a single Nintendo ID even though online gameplay is handled by 3rd parties.

A very important point that this article missed though is will the Nintendo network allow multiple users per WiiU device or will Nintendo pretend that every person has their own personal WiiU?

They are just lazy and have a misguided opinion on what's important (HD, Online).

They are also very sensitive to Chicken Little claims of pedos grooming children through online services. By forcing people to manually enter user IDs, it adds another hurdle beyond just hitting accept on a friend request.

The picture looks like and older - fatter - constipated version of Kid from Kid n Play.

Quote:

Why don't we know more about the Wii U's online gameplay features?

Various rhetoricals here:

Did Nintendo announce the network would be up and running by launch ?

There is no product yet - so why cry about something that is not public yet ?

Rumors rumors rumos - fictional nintendo network that might or might not exist - ooooohhh. The Devs are in the dark - potential players don't know how they will connect with their friends on the new system - oh my gawd - 2012 is almost over and the end of the world is coming.

The picture looks like and older - fatter - constipated version of Kid from Kid n Play.

Quote:

Why don't we know more about the Wii U's online gameplay features?

Various rhetoricals here:

Did Nintendo announce the network would be up and running by launch ?

There is no product yet - so why cry about something that is not public yet ?

Rumors rumors rumos - fictional nintendo network that might or might not exist - ooooohhh. The Devs are in the dark - potential players don't know how they will connect with their friends on the new system - oh my gawd - 2012 is almost over and the end of the world is coming.

1. They announced they were releasing a new system really soon. One would expect their Nintendo Network to be functional due to this. Aside from the tablet controller, they seem to be pushing this to be a selling point for them. So for them not to have a running network up by launch is idiotic.

2. Because, again, aside from their tablet controller, Nintendo seems to think the NN is a good selling point, yet not much is known about it. If Nintendo didn't want anyone wondering about it, they shouldn't have made it public. They should have just kept it low key.

3. Might want to read the article again. Also, it seems with whats been released so far, Nintendo themselves aren't even sure how it's gonna work.

If they're not talking about it they're embarrassed or ashamed of it and certainly not proud. Latest example of this is in Borderlands 2, people and interviewers kept on asking about the vehicles and they never talked about them or showed them. Playing the game I found out why, they're basically exactly the same, at least the buggy that I know of so far, totally uninspired, safe, didn't do shit.. Same thing with the Wii U's specs, they're embarrassing and nothing to be proud of, hence they keep them secret and don't talk about it as to not bring attention to what they know as their deficiency.

If Nintendo was confident in their offering they would be speaking on the mountaintops.

It's going to be Friend Codes. We all know this. Nintendo knows this, and they're intentionally throwing out this "we're leaving it up to the developers to use what they want" line because they don't plan to make any investment whatsoever in their own infrastructure to support such a service.

Friend Codes are the simplest way to accomplish an "online experience" with the least amount of infrastructure, and I will be shocked if it's anything more than a simplistic MAC address/friend list like it was last time.

We're talking about a company who isn't willing to spend the money to build something that's leaps beyond their competitors, and who ardently refuses to sell consoles at a loss. How do we expect them to magically roll out something as fully-featured as Live? Let's get serious.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.